Five Washington state men have been stripped of hunting privileges in Montana for five years and ordered to pay $41,000 in fines and restitution for their role in illegally shooting trophy elk in a closed hunting district on the Rocky Mountain Front and failing to check them at a game station.

The case stemmed from a yearlong, two-state poaching investigation by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks into bull elk shot on private land off Benchmark Road adjacent to the Sun River Game Range.